Not My Life
by Mogatrat
Summary: The final moments of a splicer. One-shot.


_Somewhere,_

_Beyond the sea..._

The smooth tones of Bobby Darin seem to be echoing in my skull, awakening me from sleep. He seems slow, scratchy, the record's running at half-speed. I behold a tile floor, splattered with blood. I roll over, grunting from a pain in my arm, and spot a pumpkin beneath a wooden overhang.

_Somewhere, waiting for me..._

How long has it been? I try to think back to the last thing I can remember, but then something is in my head, someone screaming about their horrible face, their horrible, destroyed face, and screeching "Steinman! Steinman!" over and over in my ears. I grab the sides of my head and stare upward, closing my eyes to keep out that awful screaming.

_My lover stands on golden sands..._

The echoes stop, and I feel like I can breathe again. I open my eyes, seeing just a cloth sheet that forms the roof of this stall. Darin's still playing. I sit up, take a look at my hands, and scuttle backward in horror, slamming into the wall behind me. My veins pulse and glow, electric sparks tipping my fingers.

_And watches the ships that go sailin'._

The voices come back, but now - it's my own voice, I recognize it. "I'll never splice. Not for you, not for anyone. I'm not risking my mind for the chance of safety. A revolver's all I need." Something gnaws at my stomach, a craving, a _hunger_.

_Somewhere, beyond the sea..._

On top of the counter next to me sits a revolver and a massive syringe, filled with red liquid. I double over in pain, my stomach burning, my muscles seizing.

_She's there, watching for me._

I fumble for the needle, and knock it off the other side. I hear shattering glass. I throw my head back and let loose a howl of pain. From the other side of the hall, I hear a hissed "_Shut up!_"

_If I could fly like birds on high..._

"What's happening to me?" I croak.

_Then straight to her arms, I'd go sailin'._

"Just wait for the pain to pass," the hisser instructs me.

_It's far beyond the star,_

_It's near beyond the moon..._

Electricity sprays from my hands, scorching the ceiling above. I hold them as far away as possible, cowering in the face of my own power.

_I know, beyond a doubt -_

_My heart will lead me there soon._

I hear a thud on the floor beside me and a few footsteps. The pain's subsiding, cooling, my hands returning to normal. A woman in a tattered party dress and rabbit mask vaults over the counter and lands, bent-kneed, in front of me. "Nice job wasting all the ADAM, you idiot," she curses through a mouth half-melted. The left half of her lips hangs down over her chin, wobbling as she speaks.

_We'll meet, beyond the shore,_

_We'll kiss, just as before..._

"So much for our big catch," she huffs, sitting down next to me.

_Happy we'll be, beyond the sea_

_And never again, I'll go sailin'._

"Somebody ought to shut that up," she complains.

"I'm sorry," I murmur, "but who are you?"

_I know, beyond a doubt -_

_My heart will lead me there soon._

"Dammit, not again," she curses. "I'm your wife."

An image flashes in my mind, a beautiful brunette with bright red lipstick. I take another look at the woman before me, and see that her mouth would be the same shape if it were on right.

_We'll meet- I know we'll meet! - beyond the shore,_

_We'll kiss, just as before..._

"How did-"

A loud thud on the wood interrupts me, and she quickly pops over the edge of the counter like a prairie dog. "Oh, God," she whispers. There's a huge cyst on her back.

_Happy we'll be, beyond the sea..._

"It's Jenny," she says.

"Look, Mister Bubbles, it's an angel!" my little girl exclaims happily. Her voice is wrong. There's some kind of reverb...

And then I remember.

_No more sailin'._

The voices fill my head again.

"No! You can't!" I say.

"We need her to save Rapture," a gruff voice insists.

"Don't take her from us!" Janet screams. There's a click, a gun cocking.

"You don't have a choice."

_So long, sailin'..._

"We need the ADAM," Janet states. "Come on, grab your gun and let's go."

"But she's-"

"Just another freak!" she screams in my face, spitting flicks of saliva on my skin.

_Bye bye..._

I take the gun and fire one clean shot, directly into her head. The mask shatters, and her blood and brains shoot out the back of her head.

_Oh, my captain..._

I put the gun to my temple.

This will not be my life.


End file.
